Seth Kaiba
Seth Kaiba (海馬セス Kaiba Seth) is the son of Seto Kaiba and Ishizu Ishtar in Yu-Gi-Oh! X and its two prequels, Kidnapped and Trust and Faith. He was born four years after Atem left. He has made a personal conviction of following in his father's footsteps to claim his future stake by striving to become the world's greatest player in Duel Monsters. Thanks to coming in first place at a local tournament he participated in at the age of twelve, Seth earned three new limited edition prismatic Blue-Eyes White Dragons from Pegasus. He was also gifted with the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon by his father on his sixteenth birthday for coming in first place at the Annual Central Duel Academy Tournament during his junior year. Background Seth was born in Domino City, Japan. His mother is Ishizu Ishtar, a former tombkeeper and currently a part-time museum curator at the Domino City Museum. His father is Seto Kaiba, an engineer, computer programmer, and businessman who currently is at the helm KaibaCorp and owner of the Central Dueling Academy. On his father's side, Seth is of Japanese descent, and is the paternal step-grandson of businessman Gozuburo Kaiba and the nephew of Mokuba Kaiba, currently the Vice-President of KaibaCorp. On his mother's side, Seth is of Coptic Egyptian descent and is the maternal grandson of tombkeepers Mr. and Mrs. Ishtar, the patriarch and matriarch of the tomb-guardians, the nephew of Marik Ishtar and the adoptive nephew of Odion. He is named by his father after his Ancient Egyptian incarnate Priest Seto and the Ancient Egyptian God Set. Seth inherited much of his father's snobbish, cutthroat, and conservative personality, especially exhibiting contempt towards those he considers inferior but he is slightly more friendly to those he considers his equals, which he judges by how well they hold their own in a duel against him. Like how Seto cared for his uncle Mokuba and mother cared for his uncle Marik, he inherited his father's compassion and his mother soliciting character towards his siblings, as he is very protective of his little sister, Isis. He also carries on his family's condescending attitude towards Joey's family as he constantly insults Joey's son, Johnny. Like his father, Seth did not take to losing very well though he is slightly more willing to accept defeat than his father was when facing a loss. Upon one of his first (and few losses in his entire dueling life) at a Domino City Duel Monsters tournament when he was eleven, he had tried to be cheerful in digesting the loss upon losing to a duelist four years younger than he was, he nearly considered quitting dueling altogether. Following a meltdown when mourning his loss, Seth regained his composure after being encouraged to continue dueling by one of the local tournament expediters, who also happened to an admissions administrator at the Central Dueling Academy, a private dueling institution owned by his father. Personal life Seth began his education at City of Domino Elementary and attended the public school Domino Elementary from 2005 to 2011 and attended the exclusive private boarding school Domino Academy International Secondary School from 2012 while concurrently enrolling at the Central Duel Academy from 2012 to 2017. At Domino Academy International Secondary, Seth earned high academic honors and excelled in classes in addition to winning prizes in mathematics, economics, computer science, astronomy, and physics during his junior year. He served as captain of the school's debate, engineering, robotics, and chess teams, was a key member of the Domino Academy International Student Council, National Honors Society, Japanese Club, United Nationals Model Student Union, Domino Academy International Key Club, Habitat for Humanity, and Japanese Red Cross Club, as well as winning gold medals during his junior and senior year as a member of the Domino Academy International Private Math and Science Olympiads. In addition, Seth is also an Eagle Scout, a nationally published author, writing on the subject regarding the future of artificial intelligence and holographic technology and its impact on Duel Monsters and an accomplished classical piano and violin player earning several youth awards at the Domino City Orchestra as well as participating as a member of the Domino school Orchestra. He graduated in June 2017 in the top five percent of his class with a 3.98 GPA gaining acceptance offers from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo National University, Nanyang Technical University, the University of Toronto, UTH Zurich, and Oxford University. Besides playing Duel Monsters during his childhood, Seth is an avid computer programmer, where he developed an interest in science and technology as well as business and investing. His childhood reading included Bill Gates's "The Road Ahead" series piqued his interest in computer science and Warren Buffett's "The Tao of Warren Buffett" piquing his interest in business and investing from which he drew the lesson that "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get", an adage he continues to hold to this day whether when buying Duel Monster's card packs to assemble a powerful deck or choosing stocks with strong competitive advantages that are likely to retain their long term value and turn a tidy profit. As a result with his stock investments, Seth has often compared stock-picking with competitive dueling stating the importance of choosing certain cards along with forming a centralized strategy when creating a deck while choosing competitively advantaged stocks ran by well managed employees with good long term economics when forming an investment portfolio. He also gave an oral presentation in his third grade class about the logistics of buying a stock. At the age of eleven, Seth built a software program he called "KaibaDisk", a private instant messaging system that allowed all the KaibaCorp employees computers between the house and KaibaCorp offices to communicate with each other. Seth began using computers and writing software source codes while in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC and Java Programming during his early teens, and later hired a KaibaCorp software engineer to tutor him privately to polish his programming skills. Seth later developed the code of a BASIC-based video game he created called Capsule Dice Monsters and the C++-based video game "Kudos", a video game that allows players to become a sports tycoon by building and managing their own fantasy baseball team by using in-game player cards. Seth later sold the source code at the age of seventeen to the Domino City-based video game development company called Tetsuyuki Technologies for approximately ¥81 million. Exploiting a hidden and untapped customer base in young video game fans; those "windfall profits" earned him a Mercedes-Benz and a high-end custom made Apple Mac laptop. Seth also rolled some profits from the sale of his source code into a side real estate investment venture: a 25 unit apartment building he purchased for ¥10,250,000, which provides affordable on campus housing for domestic Domino University students. He showed the financial statements after the sale of his video game source code to convince his father of his decision to drop out of high school to skip college to go directly into business, but was strictly overruled by his father citing the value and benefits of holding a university degree. In addition to computer programming, Seth also displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. He was inspired by two business books he borrowed from the Domino City public library at the age of seven, Warren Buffett's "The Warren Buffett Way" and Donald Trump's "How to Get Rich". One of his first childhood business ventures was at the age of nine, Seth sold baseball cards, Coca-Cola cans, and handmade shampoo door to door across various neighborhoods in Domino City. He worked in the corner store inside the KaibaCorp headquarters owned by his father. In a bid to enter business early, he applied to take a high school equivalency exam at age eleven but was unable to do so due to his dueling commitments. In his early teenage years, he held down a variety of part time jobs and small time business ventures including a paper route, a snow cone stand, a snow shoveling business, and sold stamp-coin collections on the weekends. While still in high school, he also made money delivering newspapers, selling subscriptions for the Domino City Post, and selling golf balls at the Domino City Country Club. At the age of fifteen, Seth made more than ¥17,000 monthly delivering Domino City Post newspapers. On his first income tax return in 2013, Seth took a ¥6,000 deduction for the use of his Nakamura bicycle on his paper route. In his early teens, Seth astutely invested the money he earned from part-time jobs into an array of privately controlled companies, penny stocks, index funds, commodity ETFs, foreign currencies, Japanese treasury bonds, commercial farmland and precious metals. Seth's interest in business and investing dated to schoolboy days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage firm near his father's KaibaCorp headquarters. On a business trip with his father to Domino City's Financial District at age ten, he made a point to visit the Domino City Stock Exchange. At the age of twelve, he made his first stock market investment by acquiring nine shares of Sasuke Industries Preferred for himself, and three for his sister Isis as a birthday gift. The stock split three-for-one and over time tripled his initial investment. By age thirteen, Seth was regularly calling his stockbroker to get quotes, with his reasoning behind buying a share of Johnson & Johnson was the fact that he has used a lot of band-aids (a product of the company) during his earlier childhood years. At the age of fourteen, he invested in five businesses owned by his father's private investment company, KC Holdings; a laundromat, a gas station, an Egyptian-Japanese Fusion themed buffet restaurant, an auto dealership and a car wash as a test designed by his father to prove Seth's business and investing acumen. He also invested in a 30-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer on the outskirts of Domino. Seth bought the land at a Domino City bankruptcy court with the help of his father when he was fourteen years old with ¥160,000 of his own money. In 2013, as a high school sophomore, Seth and a friend spent ¥55,000 to purchase used pinball and vending machines, which they placed in a local Domino City barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in six different barber shops across Domino City and one in his father's Kaiba Corp headquarters. The machines were sold two years later for a tidy sum of ¥350,000 to a Japanese PeaceCorps volunteer. By the time he finished high school, Seth had accumulated a princely sum of ¥1,100,000 in savings, exhibiting his fathers shrewd business and investing instincts. In 2017, Seth entered Magdalen College, Oxford. He would have preferred to focus on his business ventures; however, he enrolled due to pressure from his father. Seth plans to study at for Oxford four to five years to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Business. For graduate studies, he hopes to obtain a Masters of Business Administration by attending the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania as well as eyeing on a Master's Degree in Computer Science from Cambridge University. In October 2017, Seth began his degree in Computer Science and Business at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was listed as one of Business Insider's "16 Incredibly Impressive Students At Oxford University". Early Life Seth was born a year after his parents got married, and he was named by his father after his Egyptian incarnate Priest Seto and the Ancient Egyptian God Set. Kaiba also met Seth in a dream that Seto gave him about how his life would turn out if he chased after Ishizu and ended up marrying her. The first sign of Seth's enthusiasm with Duel Monsters came when he was six years old — while in a Domino City toy store, he grabbed a pack of newly released cards and refused to let go. His parents treasure the moment to his day. In addition, whenever he saw a live competitive Dueling match on television, he would run to the television, protesting if his parents tried to change the channel. His father soon noticed his piqued interest and Seto introduced him to Duel Monsters, agreeing to teach him the ropes of the game as well as acting as his early private dueling coach, training and teaching him strategies that would drive his opponents into submission no matter what the dueling situation may be. Seeing his son's impassioned enthusiasm and spirit, Seto encouraged his son to be a competitive Duel Monster's player starting at the young age of eight, sending him out to compete in local tournaments with large cash prize pools sponsored by his father's KaibaCorp conglomerate around Domino City. Seth won several local tournaments and his talent soon caught the eye of the creator of Duel Monsters, Maximillion Pegasus, whose company Industrial Illusions was a local tournament sponsor who insisted to Seto that his son should continue playing Duel Monsters competitively at higher levels. Academy Years Just before his thirteenth birthday, Seth enrolled at the Central Duel Academy his father owned, and he received numerous academic accolades and quickly surged through the ranks to become one of the top ranked duelists during his freshman year, only losing to Yugi Moto's son Tag, whom he formed a friendly rivalry with. Before entering the academy, Seth was rated as a highly touted dueling prospect with scouts praising his combination of playmaking, aggressive beatdown strategies, quick thinking and sharp reflexes, intuition, and punishing tactics. His impressive play led the Duel Academy scouts to consider him one of the most talented dueling prospects of his generation. Drawing comparisons to his father Seto, he was noted primarily for his prescient vision and offensive prowess to corner his opponents into submission. In addition, he was also praised knowing exactly what his opponents were doing and coming up with innovative counter-strategies to inhibit his opponents ability to defend against him. Numerous video game and e-sports media publications around Domino City ranked Seth as one of the top dueling prospects of his year earning comparisons to his father Seto, who himself was a formidable Duelist during his early young adult years. For these reasons, Seth was expected to be a catalyst at the Duel Academy, as his offensive prowess and swift dueling judiciousness would serve as valuable assets for him particularly when facing difficult, stronger, and often higher ranking challengers in their junior and senior years at the Academy. His father advised his son to enroll at the Academy as he believed that the Academy would be a good training ground to hone his dueling skills to prepare him to duel competitively at the national and international levels so he could one day fulfill his goal of entering the Pro League of elite duelists. Despite his impressive academic record and being a heavy favorite in the Duel Academy, Seth always remained overshadowed competitively by Tag, a highly performing student who himself earned academic honors and took down stronger duelists three to five years older than he was. In addition Tag was also cited by the Chancellor as the Academy's top contender as the first freshman in the Academy's history poised to enter the Pro League and compete at national level, a feat normally achieved by students only during their junior and senior years. Seth would lose to Tag in the finals of the Annual Duel Academy Tournament for three years in a row until he defeated Tag in a duel when they were sixteen, but Seth didn't count it as a victory since it was during a time that Tag was emotionally broken by a drifting in his relationship with his father. Appearances Dadnapped He attended the Tokyo Duel Monsters Convention with his father where the father of another friendly rival of his named Darin revealed an invention he built for KaibaCorp, the Duel Disk. Seth also helped Tag look for his father at the car wash, which ended up with Tag getting captured too. Following their capture, Seth revealed three Duel Runners to follow Rex and Weevil. Seth also brings a spy-grade microphone to listen in on Rex and Weevil to figure out what they're doing. They then follow them as Rex and Weevil run for it, but they're stopped when Rex throws a thing of oil on the road. He also rallies the people at the convention after Darin figures out that Tag's having him and Yugi moved to the hotel. After they find out about Tag and Mel's duel, Seth recognizes that Tag's fixed what was broken in him. After the duel, Seth demands a rematch for when Tag comes back, and Tag promises Seth that rematch. My Sister's Duelist After losing a rematch to Tag, which he accepted gracefully, his five-year-old sister, Isis, was kidnapped by a disgruntled former employee of KaibaCorp. Seth and the others spent several hours looking for her, with memories of a promise he made to his parents that he'd protect Isis haunting him. Eventually, he discovered the kidnapper's location from a call he made to his parents. When Seth arrived, Isis' kidnapper threatened to kill Isis unless Seth defeated his step-daughter, Kira, in a duel. The duel went in Seth's favor until Kira trapped the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon in a Spell-Binding Circle, but Seth managed to pull through by drawing his sixteenth birthday present, the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. Against a dragon that could only get stronger as the duel continued, Kira forfeited. Seth then promised to give Kira a better home with Kira stopping her father from hurting Isis with one of her cards, and Johnny kneeing the guy in the gut. Seth then brought Isis home and began teaching her Duel Monsters. Mother and Son Seth's advice to Darin when he had to duel his mother was to keep his cool and try to forget that he was dueling his mother. Dueling Dog When Seth's father took over the Academy, Seth had to duel his step-uncle, Odion, to stay. Seth won with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Return of Shadi Soul Search Seth went to the Domino Museum with Tag and the others. Seth also brought Isis with him to help culturally enrich her. Seth wasn't very impressed about the fact that the new artifacts came from Pharaoh Seto's tomb. While looking at the tablet, Seth recieved a vision of himself and Tag dueling, with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Black Luster Soldier out. Millennium Test Seth joins the gang in helping Bakura, but when Shadi has a brainwashed Bakura chase away Yugi and Johnny, and erases Anzu, Serena, and Kira's mind, Seth is forced to participate in a test for the Millennium Items. Seth's test involved Shadi having Ameit hold Seth's arms as he has to guess what the middle tablet of nine stones is. Shadi explains that the tablets are a mirror of Ameit, so Seth things about what Ameit only had one of, and he realizes that the middle tile is Ameit's mouth. After that, Seth gains the Millennium Rod. Seth then helps Kira get off of the roof after Shadi's spell is broken. Birthday for Two Seth attended Tag and Anzu's birthday party, but he scoffed at the story of Tag playing with the Dark Magician Girl since she was just a hologram. The Thief Returns Seth was with the others while Darin was in his coma, and Seth yelled at Darin that if he couldn't come back, he deserved to lose his Millennium Test. When they used their friendship to enter the Shadow Realm and see Darin's duel with Bakura, Seth asked when Darin started bowing to his opponents as a way to encourage him to go forward. After Darin beat Bakura, everyone returned to the real world. Baby-Sitting a Kaiba After winning a duel against Darin by having his Blue-Eyes White Dragon destroy Darin's Dark Magician. Ishizu then asked Seth to look after Isis while she and Kaiba went to America to talk to Pegasus. Seth said he promised to help Kira find out who her parents were first through the KaibaCorp Computer. After Darin volunteered to look after Isis during that time, Seth promised to return right back home after helping Kira. Darin then asked for Seth's help as Isis was acting on her crush on him. Seth just joked about things and left. He used the computer in Kira's house to connect to his own as he didn't want Darin bugging him for help over Isis' crush on him. He then finds out that Kira's parents disappeared after she turned three. He then returned home and helped put Isis to bed in her room after saying good night to her. Death-T As Seth and the others were about to go home for the weekend, a limo pulled up to take them to Tokyo. There, they saw Solomon lose to Mel Tyrone and nearly driven insane before Tag accepted Mel's offer to enter his Tournament of Death, Death-T. Seth decided to follow Tag into Death-T to defend him. When Isis wanted to go in when she and Serena arrived, Seth ordered Isis to stay, but she refused, so Seth compromised and ordered her not to participate in any of the games. Death-T1 When Seth arrived at Death-T1, he was briefed by Anzu, who got a job there, not knowing that Death-T was designed to kill Tag. He then participated in the laser tag game after ordering Isis to stay outside with Anzu. After retreating when Darin felt that the game was rigged, Seth saw Isis test Anzu's laser and saw the vests blow up. Seth then compared Anzu's laser to his own and discovered that the lasers the gang were given were simply toys. This led to Darin winning the game with his brain and Anzu's laser. The gang then advanced to Death-T2. Death-T2 Railway Car of Fear The gang eventually found themselves in front of a railway car big enough for all of them. Seth then ended up shackled to a chair, and if he made a sound, he'd be electrocuted. He manages to keep his mouth shut, although he comes close when vents blow air at the back of his head and hands slap his face. At the end of the ride, he checks on Kira and Isis to make sure they're okay and thanks Isis for shutting down the chairs after she kicked the runner of the ride in the shins. He then went into the next part of Death-T2. Murderer's Mansion When the gang enters the Murderer's Mansion, Seth finds that the upper floors are blocked off by a block of concrete. When Isis hears about the Chopman, Seth comforts her. He then participates in the game of risking his hand, and he's released when Tag figures out that Anzu has to push her button. He then witnesses his little sister get kidnapped. Chopman When they enter the passage way, Seth calls out for Isis. When they find her and are told by Mel that one of them has to face the Chopman to save her, Seth's about to volunteer when Johnny does it instead. Seth then tries to comfort Isis when she and Johnny are trapped inside. Once Johnny deals with the Chopman, Seth comforts Isis and thanks Johnny for saving his sister. Death-T3 The gang then entered a room that was completely smooth except for a small opening that was too high up to reach. He then ended up having his friends' parents' friendship symbol drawn on his hand. When a large block appears out of no where, Seth just manages to save Isis from being crushed by it. Seth then follows Anzu as they make it out of the room as the blocks continue to fall, but Darin ends up trapped when his jacket gets caught between the blocks. Death-T4 When the gang arrived at Death-T4, Seth was the first to realize that the board under the Duel Box was a Capsule Monsters board. Death-T5 When Tag was about to face Mel, Seth was sure Tag could beat Mel again. In the middle of the duel, Seth yelled for Tag to smash the dinosaurs and scramble the eggs. When Johnny is about to be shot, Seth beats the man up to pay Johnny back for saving Isis. Journey to the Past During the party to celebrate the end of Death-T, Seth made fun of Johnny being dumber than his father, but a fight between them was stopped by Tag. He then received a message from an employee that he's located where Kira's parents are living. He then took Kira to them. After reuniting with her parents, they moved next door to the Fudos, and Seth helped Kira move out. Kira then hugged Seth and thanked him for reuniting her with her parents. New Member of the Family Seth was with the others when they learned that Tea was pregnant again. When Isis asked Seth where babies came from, he pretended to see Jaden Yuki along with the others. Lucky Me When the gang went to Domino High to visit Anzu and Serena, Seth asked if Tag's parents actually attended the place. Seth then went to Burger World with the others and witnessed Darin defeat an escaped convict. Virtual Return Return of Gozaburo Seth later witnessed his dad lose to Yugi again in the final round of the Teacher's Tournament, complimenting on how Kaiba overcame Slifer's special ability. Seth then went on route home on the family jet with his family and the others when they were pulled into a virtual fortress and trapped in the virtual world by his step-grandfather, Gozaburo. Seth then intercepted Gozaburo's challenge to Kaiba and prepared to duel him. Grandfather vs. Grandson Seth eventually ended up having to face Gozaburo's signature card, Exodia Necross, but Seth then began his come back by summoning the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and he then had it wipe out a large part of Gozaburo's Life Points. He then sacrificed his Ultimate Dragon to summon the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, and he was about to have it attack Exodia Necross for the win when Gozaburo held Isis in front of Exodia and forced Seth to surrender. He and Isis were then turned into stone by Gozaburo. Prince of Games Seth was returned to normal with Isis once Tag defeated Gozaburo and banished him to the Shadow Realm. Seth then thanked Tag for saving Isis before they were released from the Virtual World and went home. New Duelist Kingdom Seth was present during Tag's video duel with Pegasus and witnessed his parents getting their souls stolen by Pegasus. Preparing for Duelist Kingdom At the hospital, Seth visited his parents. Afterwords, Seth went home and recieved a formal invitation to the New Duelist Kingdom. He easily remade his deck for Duelist Kingdom and ran simulation duels against various top-ranked Duelist, scoring an 80% chance of victory against Chazz Princeton. The day he left, Seth had Isis stay with Grandpa Moto to keep her safe and had her promise to do whatever Grandpa and Anru said. On the boat, Seth met Jen Atlas, the top ranked Duelist from the South Academy. He smirked when Jen pointed out that most of the people at Duel Academy ran off when Seth challenges them and calls those people the lucky ones. Seth also doubted Jen's ability to win the Duelist Kingdom as the only decent Duelist out of South Academt was Jim "Crocodile" Cook. When Kira begins to get angry at Jen, Seth calms her down, voicing that he was sure killing a competitor would get her eliminated. Seth then learned that Anzu and Serena had snuck on to give him and the others emotional support, and he said they were lucky that Grandpa Moto was there to watch Isis as well as Anru, inhabbiting Tea's body. Squish the Bug At Duelist Kingdom, Seth believed the tournament would give the gang some tough competition. Seth then witnessed Tag's duel with Weevil. Category:Trust and Faith Category:Kidnapped Category:Yu-Gi-Oh! X Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Supporting Characters Category:Minor Characters